pleading

Watson,” cried the woman in a pleading voice.

If at this moment the sweet voice of Renée had sounded in his ears pleading for mercy, or the fair Mercédès had entered and said, “In the name of God, I conjure you to restore me my affianced husband,” his cold and trembling hands would have signed his release; but no voice broke the stillness of the chamber, and the door was opened only by Villefort’s valet, who came to tell him that the travelling carriage was in readiness.

Villefort knew not when he should return, and Renée, far from pleading for Dantès, hated the man whose crime separated her from her lover.